Smosh
Sacramento County, California Daniel Anthony Padilla Sacramento County, California | nationality = American | occupation = Actors, Comedians | origin = Carmichael, California | website = | years_active = 2005–present | genre = Comedy | subscribers = 22.7 million+ | network = Defy Media | silver_year = 2007 | gold_year = 2009 | diamond_year = 2013 |stats_update=August 7, 2017| silver_button = yes | gold_button = yes | diamond_button = yes }} Smosh is an American sketch comedy YouTube channel created by Ian Andrew Hecox (born November 30, 1987) and Daniel Anthony Padilla ( ; born September 16, 1987). Anthony Padilla created a website called smosh.com in 2002. He was later joined by his friend Ian Hecox. Soon afterward, they began to post videos on YouTube in the autumn of 2005 and became one of the most popular channels on the site. , the Smosh channel has over 6 billion video views and 22 million subscribers, making it the 15th most subscribed channel on YouTube. The Smosh team has expanded to include others to handle animated, other language, and video gaming content videos, and the sketches have included more actors. After Padilla left Smosh to pursue his solo YouTube channel in June 2017, Hecox became the only co-founder that is currently an active member of the Smosh team. The Smosh channel has experienced three different spans as the most subscribed YouTube channel. The first period spanned from May to June 2006, the second spanned from April 2007 to September 2008, and the third span lasted from January to August 2013. Smosh has more subscribers than any other American Youtube Channel that is not a Vevo channel, or a channel owned by Youtube itself. History Formation and Pokémon Theme Music Video: 2002–2006 The franchise began when Anthony Padilla built a website in 2002, smosh.com, and made several different Flash animations. He has stated that the name Smosh came from an incident where he mistook a friend explaining a mosh pit as a "smosh pit". Other content creators in the pre-YouTube era would also upload videos to smosh.com, including future YouTuber TomSka. Later, his friend, Ian Hecox, joined the venture. Padilla and Hecox first met in their sixth grade science class. They became friends, and quickly discovered their knack for comedy. In 2005, they joined YouTube and made several videos together, lip syncing the theme songs to Mortal Kombat, Power Rangers, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. At first, these videos were not intended to be posted online, but after they sent them to their friends, they started a YouTube channel. One of Smosh's earliest videos, "Pokémon Theme Music Video," was released on November 28, 2005. It followed the same style as their other earlier videos, featuring the duo lip-synching the original English theme song for the ''Pokémon'' anime. However, the video instantly became much more popular than any of their other videos; over the course of its lifetime, it gained over 24 million views, becoming the most-viewed video on all of YouTube at that time. It held that title until it was dethroned by Judson Laipply's "Evolution of Dance". It was later removed for copyright. The success of their Pokémon video and other videos led Smosh to be featured in the "Person of the Year: You" issue of Time Magazine, published December 13, 2006 and on Time.com. In March 2007, a user named Andii2000 (now renamed as John) re-uploaded the original Pokémon video; it has over 15.8 million views . Due to the channel's continued success, and Smosh's partnership with YouTube, the two recreated the video in November 2010, this time changing the words to be critical of The Pokémon Company taking down the Pokémon theme video. YouTube success: 2006–2012 Over the course of the next few years, Smosh began to diversify. They started making short YouTube skits, such as their annual video series Food Battle and That Damn Neighbor. Smosh continued to grow in popularity and became one of the most subscribed channels on YouTube. In 2009, Smosh prepared a massive redesign of Smosh.com, added a games section, and put extras in the video section. In January 2010, Smosh launched the "Smosh Pit" feature, a blog that consists of various pieces of pop-culture trivia, and written comedy. In addition, 2010 saw the channel launch 3 different Smosh-based web series: Ian Is Bored, which started as a collection of comedic videos by Hecox, but then turned into both Hecox and Padilla making vlog like videos, and renamed Smosh Is Bored; Ask Charlie, where people ask Charlie, from their January 2010 Charlie the Drunk Guinea Pig video, random questions; and Lunchtime with Smosh, a comedy series featuring Smosh getting and eating food from various places, and answering Twitter questions from their fans on Twitter. Some of Smosh's most popular video series include Pokémon in Real Life and If ____ Was Real. Also in early 2010, Smosh created the "iShut Up App" for Android phones as part of a Google sponsorship; it eventually made its way to the iTunes app store. In 2011, the number of views grew by 40% when Smosh was acquired by Alloy Digital (now Defy Media). Expansion and Padilla's departure: 2012–present In 2012, the duo started three new YouTube channels, ElSmosh, with Smosh videos dubbed in Spanish, Shut Up! Cartoons, with various animated videos, and Smosh Games, with gaming-related content hosted alongside Mari Takahashi, David "Lasercorn" Moss, Matthew Sohinki, and Joshua "Jovenshire" Ovenshire. Some of Smosh's most popular videos are video-game themed music videos. These songs (along with other original songs) have been released in 4 albums to date – Sexy Album (2010), If Music Were Real (2011), Smoshtastic (2012), and The Sweet Sound of Smosh (2013). In January 2013, the Smosh channel surpassed Ray William Johnson in subscribers. Smosh released Super Head Esploder X, a video game for iPads, iPhones, and iPods, in February 2013, and in July 2013 started an Indiegogo campaign for an iOS and PC game, Food Battle: The Game. Hecox and Padilla raised $258,777 to hire video game producers to create a game based on their characters and the foods used in their annual Food Battle series. Smosh donated 10% of the funds to three charities in November 2014, as well as releasing the game. In February 2014, Smosh released a mobile app to access Smosh videos and other content from their website, and in late 2014 an Xbox One app. Later in 2014, a fan run channel Smosh France became an official Smosh channel. In March 2015, Smosh re-launched the Smosh Games Alliance, a multi-channel network where fans join to enjoy network benefits in exchange for a percentage of the ad revenue. In 2015, the duo announced Noah Grossman, Keith Leak II, Olivia Sui, Courtney Miller, and Shayne Topp, as new regular cast members for Smosh videos. A sketch series, called Every (Blank) Ever, has been released every two weeks since May 2015. In January 2016, a web sitcom was launched on the main Smosh channel. Part Timers is a comedy-drama which takes place at a fictional children's arcade and pizza place called Pork E. Pine’s, which takes inspiration from Hecox's first job at Chuck E. Cheese's. Each episode presents a challenge that the team must overcome to keep the business going. The series features regular Smosh cast members, Grossman (as Pete), Hecox (as Ian), and Padilla (as Anton), in addition to Cat Alter (as Mads), Jade Martz (as Ella), Casey Webb (as Dinger), and Natalie Whittle (as Lori). The series was released every Monday on the Smosh channel from January to May 2016. During the month of February, new cast member Boze was added to the Smosh Family, joining the cast of Smosh Games. On June 14, 2017, Padilla announced he would be leaving Smosh to pursue independent video ventures due to a "lack in creative freedom". Hecox will remain with Smosh, and has stated "I'm really looking forward to taking Smosh to the next phase, and we can't wait for people to see what we have coming up." Films On September 18, 2014, Lionsgate announced that a feature-length movie was in development, Smosh: The Movie was released on July 23, 2015. It is directed by Alex Winter, written by Eric Falconer, and aside from Hecox and Padilla, stars Jenna Marbles, Grace Helbig, Harley Morenstein, Michael Ian Black, Mark Fischbach (Markiplier), and Steve Austin. Smosh also gave their voices as Hal and Bubbles in The Angry Birds Movie, a 2016 film based on the video game franchise of the same name. Smosh also created the film Ghostmates for YouTube Red. The movie was released on December 14, 2016. Channels Ten Smosh-related channels exist on YouTube, though only seven have scheduled content. Main channels Smosh (youtube.com/smosh) "Smosh" is the original and main channel of all ten channels. It has over 22 million subscribers, and over 6.6 billion views. The channel is where the Smosh team posts skits and other videos starring Noah Grossman, Ian Hecox, Keith Leak II, Courtney Miller, Olivia Sui, and Shayne Topp. Smosh has many complete and ongoing series which include: * Main Videos (2005–present) * Music Videos (2005–present) * Food Battle (2006–2016) * If Blank Were Real (2009–present) * Behind The Scenes (2014–2016) * Every Blank Ever (2015–present) * Part Timers (2016) * Smosh LIVE! (2016) * SMOSHTOBER (2016) * Smosh Animated (2016) * One Letter Off (2016-present) * The Big What If (2016–present) * This Week in Smosh (2017–present) * You Posted That? (2017–present) Smosh Games (youtube.com/SmoshGames) "Smosh Games" uploads numerous videos a week, consisting of Let's Plays and video game commentary shows. Padilla and Hecox appear less regularly on this channel, with fellow Smosh Games members Mari Takahashi, David "Lasercorn" Moss, Matthew Sohinki, Joshua "Jovenshire" Ovenshire, Amra "Flitz" Ricketts, and Wesley "Wes The Editor" Johnson handling most hosting duties. It has over 7.1 million subscribers, and over 2.4 billion video views as of October 2016. Takahashi, Moss, Sohinki, Ovenshire, Ricketts, and Johnson also have their own channels, which are not considered part of the Smosh roster. Since summer 2015, the channel has hosted annual "Smosh Summer Games" and "Smosh Winter Games" events, primarily hosted on the Smosh Games channel with other videos posted to Smosh 2nd Channel as well. The first Summer Games in 2015 introduced Shayne Topp to the Smosh family as a referee, while the 2017 Winter Games introduced Ericka Bozeman. Damien Haas joined later in 2017. In August that year, Sohinki and Lasercorn announced that they would no longer be full time members of Smosh Games, in order to focus on their new project Toaster Ghost. They have not ruled out appearing in future Smosh-related videos though, and have appeared occasionally in videos since then. Smosh 2nd Channel (youtube.com/IanH) From "Smosh 2nd Channel" (originally named "IanH", and was used at first for vlogs and other non-scripted videos), Hecox and Padilla upload their side series Smosh is Bored on Mondays, while the rest of the team uploads vlogs on Thursdays, and Put It In My Mouth and Smosh's Seriously Super Stupid Sleepover on Saturdays. It has over 5.3 million subscribers and over 1.4 billion views. Smosh Pit Weekly was a series on the channel hosted by Mari Takahashi from April 2011 to August 2015, posted on Saturdays. On July 28, 2017, Ian Hecox announced that Smosh 2nd Channel would be renamed "Smosh Pit" in the near future, and that Smosh Pit Weekly would be revived, with Mari Takahashi returning as the host. Two other shows, WHOA! Nature, starring Courtney Miller and Olivia Holt, and One Hour Song Machine, starring Keith Leak II, were announced. ElSmosh (youtube.com/ElSmosh) On "ElSmosh", the team uploads ElSmosh Pit de la Semana (Smosh Pit Weekly), Honest Game Trailers, a series from Smosh Games narrated in Spanish, and new Smosh episodes that have been dubbed over in Spanish. It has over 3.1 million subscribers. Shut Up! Cartoons (youtube.com/ShutUpCartoons) "Shut Up! Cartoons" uploads a number of animated series, created by different animators. It has over 2.0 million subscribers. Former channels AnthonyPadilla (youtube.com/AnthonyPadilla) "AnthonyPadilla" hosts vlogs uploaded by Padilla. Most videos uploaded prior to 2016 were removed in 2016 when Padilla revived the channel to upload personal vlogs. It has over 2.3 million subscribers. Since Padilla's departure from Smosh, the channel is no longer associated with the brand. New AskCharlie EVERY WEDNESDAY (youtube.com/askcharlie) "AskCharlie", active from May 2010 to December 2011, hosts videos from the Ask Charlie series, where an anthropomorphic guinea pig, named Charlie the Drunk Guinea Pig, answers viewer submitted questions. Smosh Games Alliance (youtube.com/SmoshGamesAlliance) The Smosh Games Alliance (SGA) channel is used for extra content for the Smosh Games crew. Originally it utilized fan-submitted gaming content, spotlighting it on the channel, and offered tutorials in "Smosh University". It continues to hosts more vlogs with the Smosh Games crew. It has over 294 thousand subscribers. No videos have been uploaded to the channel since December 30, 2016. Schedule Discography Studio albums Awards and nominations References External links * * * * * * * * * Smosh is a YouTube channel led by Ian Hecox. It originally consisted of the comedic duo which included Ian and his childhood friend, Anthony Padilla. On June 14, 2017 Anthony, in a video with Ian, announced he had left Smosh. Ian stated he would continue with Smosh. With nearly 7 billion views and nearly 23 million subscribers, Smosh has the 70th most viewed and the 16th most subscribed channel on YouTube. History Ian and Anthony are best friends who had regularly made videos together ever since high school, which they uploaded on YouTube and the website Smosh.com. They were the most subscribed channel of all of YouTube, with over 10 million subscribers. At first, Smosh only consisted of half the pair. Anthony used to make flash games and movies on Newgrounds.com under the name "Smosh." The name Smosh originated when Anthony's friend was talking about a mosh pit, and he accidentally said "Smosh Pit" instead. This became an inside joke between Ian, Anthony, and their friends, and would later become the name of one of the biggest YouTube stars to this day. Their rise to fame started in the fall of 2005 during YouTube's early days. The videos they made then were extremely different to their videos now. Smosh's earliest videos were music videos of theme songs from video games or television shows recorded in Anthony's bedroom. One of Smosh's earliest videos uploaded on November 28th, 2005 was the Pokemon Theme Song. It was an extremely big hit for the early channel as from March 12th to May 19th 2006, it was the most viewed video on YouTube from being at 4,300,000 views by the time it surpassed eggtea's "Myspace- The Movie" sketch comedy video as the most viewed video to 10,600,000 views before being surpassed by Judson Laipply's "Evolution of Dance" video. It remained on YouTube for at least 6 months with over 24,000,000 views before it was taken off due to copyright issues. Shogakukan Productions Co., Ltd. forced YouTube to remove the video for copyright infringement. All of this publicity made Smosh become the most subscribed channel on YouTube with nearly 3,000 subscribers however they were shortly surpassed by Judison Liapply. Smosh would go on to be the most subscribed channel twice more, their most recent reign being in 2013, holding the record as one the two channels that has been the most subscribed the most times along PewDiePie. The duo soon stopped making music videos as often and moved onto comical 'episodes' which would become what they are most famous for. These started off with short videos such as Dolls and Stranded. But later on, they turned to full 3-5 minute long skits and shows. The plots of these episodes would be about anything, from Ian's birthday to Disney movies. Now, their videos are usually longer skits, with more detailed plots and an older audience aim. Recently, Smosh issued their first game show on the channel where it features other YouTubers. On August 21, 2013 they held their first ever live stream which was meant to help donation for Food Battle: The Game. In 2015 five new regular cast members were added to the Smosh family these being Keith Leak II, Noah Grossman, Olivia Sui, Courtney Miller and Shayne Topp. This gave Smosh the chance to have even more elaborate and detailed skits. They were also able to launch other side series such as Every Blank Ever and The Big What If which in many cases does not feature Ian or Anthony. After the addition of the five new members previous actors and actresses such as Lee Eisenhower, Travis Zeiler, Melissa Melancon and Brittni Barger have appeared less and less with most not appearing at all. Many iconic characters from the earlier Smosh days such as Boxman, That Damn Neighbor and Teleporting Fat Guy also vanishing from videos. On June 14, 2017 Anthony officially left Smosh, leaving Ian now as the leader of Smosh. After over ten years on YouTube, Smosh has expanded from a single channel with two teenagers making short videos to an empire. Smosh has a full cast, over five channels including one that uploads video game based videos with their cast and a separate cast, a fully scripted series and two feature films. Video Series These are their most recent video series: * Food Battle * Every Blank Ever * Music Videos * Movie Spoofs * If...Were Real * The Big What If Most of their videos are inappropriate, but are rated green in the age and content holder. A few of them have been flagged, such as "How to Hide a Boner in Public!" and "I'm Naked!". Both of those videos can be viewed at Smosh.com. Smosh sometimes makes episodic videos like "I Lost My Hair!" and "Homeless Millionaire!" and the Life as Ghosts series in 2008. Video Productivity Past Smosh videos have been upgrading in content and quality since their debut in 2005. Usually, it will take about 2 weeks to make a complex 3-5 minute long Smosh video, with the filming, editing, and producing. In an interview, Anthony said that it didn't take much work to come up with a video idea. The first thing they do is think of 4 or 5 different ideas, and discuss them. After the video idea is decided, they think about who will do what and when. In the same interview, Ian said that he's the one who comes up with most of the ideas, and Anthony extends them. As part of the process, Ian said he would edit for a few hours before confronting Anthony to discuss it. When they found a video idea they both decided on, they would start working on a script to go with it. Anthony said when it came time to shoot the video, they would collect some friends and producers that would make sure to get the properties and location for it. When they're writing, they try not to make the ideas too complex because it's a lot of work to find certain locations, and they have to shoot every week. Ian said that the process of producing a single video is never start-to-finish, but gradual. While Ian is writing, Anthony is editing a video that was filmed 2 weeks ago. Anthony was usually the one who chooses the clips to be added onto the video with the help of their Professional Editor that guides him. 70% of the final video is chosen by their editor and 30% of it is either thrown or just another idea added in for fun. Then Ian would go in and edit the bloopers and extra components on his own. It takes about 12 hours, on average, to complete the entire editing process. Present Since then, Smosh has gotten a production crew that helps them out with their video ideas from plot, script, scenery and props, and about everything that comes out of the video. Ian and Anthony said in an interview that they usually put out ideas that they find funny and hope that their audience finds them funny too. Then the Smosh squad or Smosh crew expands them, sometimes even makes them. Due to the abundance of people these days, it takes much less time to think of an idea, make the video and edit it. These are reasons that influenced Anthony's decision to leave Smosh because the presence of a production crew and being owned by a company made his creative ideas have to "go through a filter". Anthony Leaves Smosh On June 14, 2017, Anthony left Smosh to become an independent creator on his own channel AnthonyPadilla. He explains in a video on his channel that he felt like since Smosh was now a brand owned by a company all his creative decisions had to go "through a filter". In a reaction video uploaded by Lasercorn a few hours later he explained that he expected Ian to see what all he could get out of the Smosh Squad and that Smosh will continue on just fine comparing it to how Saturday Night Live (SNL) is. In close to two months after his departure, Smosh dropped from the eighth to the twelfth most subscribed YouTube channel. Other Channels * ElSmosh * Smosh Games * Smosh 2nd Channel * Shut Up! Cartoons * Smosh France Trivia * According to an interview with TIME Magazine, the name "Smosh" is derived from the phrase "mosh pit" (this would ironically also be the inspiration for the Smosh Pit). * In an interview, Ian and Anthony said that the longest time they took in editing a video without sleep was 36 hours in editing their Food Battle 2009 video. They swore they would never do it again. * Smosh was featured in the official YouTube tribute "Rewind YouTube Style 2012" (they first appear at 1:24). In the video, they are apparently members of the Propulsion Laboratory, but when their space probe explodes, they start crying and Anthony calls Felicia Day. * Other than PSY, the singer of the main soundtrack, Anthony was the only person in the video to speak with his real voice (the others lip synced to the music). * They also appeared in the YouTube 2013 rewind video (YouTube Rewind: What Does 2013 Say?), in this video they were in an RV wearing green aprons, lab goggles and tighty-whiteys, a clear reference to AMC's Breaking Bad. * Smosh created their own Magazine, and kept retweeting people's picture of them with the Smosh Magazine. Only two issues of the magazine were produced. Category:2002 establishments in California Category:American comedy duos Category:American musical duos Category:Performing groups established in 2002 Category:YouTube channels Category:YouTube channels launched in 2005 Category:YouTube Diamond Play Button recipients Category:Comedy YouTubers Category:YouTube Category:YouTubers Category:Smosh